


Facing Thy Fears

by RichardLyex



Category: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Video Game), Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Angst and Humor, Crossover, F/F, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Multi, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 13:55:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18447953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RichardLyex/pseuds/RichardLyex
Summary: Arthur ventures down in Helheim to save their soul from Helheim, but a huge obstacle stands in his way and he is forced to face it.(Set in right before the battle with Surtr.)





	Facing Thy Fears

**Author's Note:**

> Lewis is female in this one, mentioned as Louise
> 
> (Gonna experiment with her character in future one-shots)
> 
> For those who hasn't seen or played Hellblade before, take a listen to this for a bit of immersion: https://youtu.be/BcvzPG0o7bc

"Surtr is close Arthur, be ready."

The voice in his head softly warned him so, a voice that the blond has slowly started to trust, he barely ever trusted anyone, the village he came from always saw him as the odd one treated him like one too.

Ever since birth he was born with heterochromia, golden yellow in the right and emerald green in the left. It was a condition that the village always found it like a blessing, a gift from the gods they said, but for them his eyes... they found them problematic, twisted, sinister, and every other unpleasant noun the village elder could muster. 

Even his mother called him a beast, a monster; his father died too soon to have any clear memories of him, so the only parent that ever cared for him was his uncle Lance. He told him from time to time that his old man was always proud of him, no matter what the others said.

He laid his left hand on his right should with an uncomfortable knot in his stomach, the loss of his right hand crippled him greatly, thankfully he was left handed, another uncommon trait that made him distanced even further from everybody.

"Something wrong?"

He hummed in an affirmative tone, the pain of his ever lasting nightmares turned reality always crawling up on his back, he found that perhaps talking with somebody he could share his pain with, spirit or not, would help him clear his mind a little bit.

"Bad memories. Just... give me a moment."

Problem is that he was too introverted for that, the only people he ever talked about his problems was his uncle, and well, his long lost lovers in Helheim. In a twisted manner, he met them after loosing his right arm in that accident, he was still a kid back then, and it still haunted the mere knowledge of just how much he was denied off with one hand.

"Want to talk about it?"

He started to bit his lips nervously, he calmly sat down just for his limbs to move a bit around, his clothes was simplistic but full of trinkets, most of them were there for a God in specific he praised for, Loki, another reason for the village to hate him, the others gave him painful memories, his lovers always took care of him and it simply hurt the more he was thinking about it.

Not them or his uncle really approved with his choice, but they were supportive about it, Loki was highly looked down upon from his home, heard rumours of other villages worshipping him, but he wasn't allowed to hear more than rumours. Which brought back those painful memories even more.

Vivi and Louise were always there, no matter what trouble he was in. A tear was slowly dropping down from his chin, slowly followed by more until he had to wipe his face away from his blurry vision. The voice appeared in front of him, everything else as usually happened when he showed himself turned pitch black, it... well he looked a bit worried by over him, his eyes matched with his left one, something Arthur noticed right off the bat. The spirit sighed with an almost defeated tone,

"We'll never get anywhere if you continue to bottle yourself up like that Arthur."

He sat beside him, laying a hand on his shoulders that he simply didn't felt, the blonde had continuous doubts if that was simply how spirits worked like, or he was just turning crazy, talking to himself for comfort. He desperately hoped it wasn't the latter.

"You have to talk to me. Surtr isn't known to show pity."

Taking a deep breath, the blonde was just able to stutter words that made no sense, it took a little while before he calmed down, truly he was a mess, how was he able to even hold a blade right was anybody's guess.

"Wha-... What would you want me to talk about?"

The voice seemed to hesitate in that, he quickly found something he would be comfortable to talk about though, Arthur wasn't sure to find that impressive or a bit creepy.

"Tell me about... your lovers you mutter around so much."

The blonde would probably blush in embarrassment if he wasn't already crying his heart out, somehow that helped to talk about them a bit more easier.

"What do you want know about them?"

He could see the annoyed look in his eyes, the spirit obviously hoped for a more open approach, the question and answers weren't his forte either.

"Well, how did you meet them for example. What made the three of you together and all that."

In that he took a moment to think about it, Arthur wasn't sure what he felt comfortable talking about, there was definitely stuff he would absolutely prefer to keep it for himself, like one specif magical night with them under the stars. Suddenly a horrifying doubt clouded his memories.

"Hang on a second, can't you read my mind? I mean, you're in my head so you gotta be, right?"

From an innocent and clueless look on the spirit's face turned into a rather amused one,

"Sorta, I can't just go through your memories but I can hear your thoughts if i concentrate enough."

That meant... Arthur's pupils widened in shock and shame, his face long buried in his coat with the spirit loudly laughing at his realization.

"I gotta say, I never expected you to be the wild one under the stars. You even got kids ever since that, what a madlad..."

"Shut up!"

This was getting highly inappropriate in a place so burnt down for so long like this, but it almost felt like the spirit was there to make him forget about it, the thought was good enough of a distraction for his previous massive embarrassment, 

"Have you got any names for the little ones?"

Arthur shortly nodded with a low peaceful hum,

"There's three of them, Vivi had born twins, Marshall and Ava. Louise instead one with a very short temper, Samantha."

And without the blond's realization, a warm smile formed from his lips,

"Little Hels, all of them. I feel guilty for leaving it to Lance to deal with it."

For how nice it felt to chat like this and ignore all the horrors Arthur has to face, both of them knew that it was already too late for him to back off now, he arrived this far to face Surtr, his first obstacle between many others.

The spirit would've loved to ask more, perhaps it was not his right to pry into his personal life so much, he couldn't help but to be curious on what a good life felt like, however shortly lived it had been.

Arthur slowly sat up from the still intact stairs, the pitch black fog slowly disappearing around him as he did, he gave one last thankful look at the fading spirit before silently continuing with his journey.

After a short while, the blond was getting close to find all these signs around the camp, on how these worked in opening those massive doors was beyond his human understandings. In any other circumstance he would've stop wondering who laid these deals around and why, as a man who desperately tried to cling for explanations, he barely was able to make peace with his mind that this might remain a mystery.

Getting the last hideously easy to miss sign, the doors magically opened his way once again, showing the usual large amount of bodies surrounded by that cursed rock he quickly grew to hate. He hated how loud and obnoxious it was when he touched it, not even mention the headache he always got from all those flashing images, to top it all off with an even more terrifying version of the place he had been with barely breathable air it was the cherry on top.

The spirit was rather silent from their last conversation, sometimes he helped him out a little bit here and there but never really started to talk about anything really, perhaps he or it preferred to not break his focus, either way it may be, it was unlike of him. He always loved to talk, there was barely a moment when he didn't say of comment on something, knowing it was odd, he decided against of asking him about it, even if he probably knew of that already.

If looks could kill, that rock would've been blasted out by Thor at this point and open up that door for him already, unfortunately he is probably on the Gods shitlist for even being here, so he has to resort for the painful way.

"Wait."

The timing the spirit had would've been praiseworthy if not just painfully frustrating at the moment, he mentally prepared himself to run through all that fire and it had to stop him now? 

"What is it?"

Turning, the sunshine highlighted his face with growing facial hair and his nasty look towards the spirit, a look that he was clearly not fazed by not even a little bit.

"You have to be careful."

The blond getting in his sour mood tilted his head a bit in a mocking tone,

"Oh really? And here I was just going to make some roasted boars instead."

He was clearly agitated, nervous and already pretty damn scares for what would've happened a second ago, some anger coming out even from him was perfectly reasonable.

"That's not what I mean."

"What do you mean then?"

His hand landed frustatedly on his hips, the spirit nearly lost his own temper with his sudden attitude, giving him some time to calm down, the blond looked lucid enough to actually hear what he had to say.

"Surtr is nothing that you faced so far, these Hels are flies in confront of that thing. He's not a mindless beasts, he's vicious and frontal, but he also learns and adapts on what you gonna do."

He took one step in front of him, his eyes were filled with hatred, concern and rage, his home might not have been perfect, but no one deserved fo burn and die the way they did, that bastard had to pay.

"Be careful, Arthur. Do not let him scare you."

No words needed to be said, the spirit disappeared from his sight again, leaving himself to truly prepare this time for what would happen. The melancholic place was filled with his heavy breaths, getting more and more doubtful if he could ever actually make it, he quietened down those thoughts with haste, he could not permit himself to feel that way, not now.

With one last breath, he opened his eyes and touched the stone, it was as he feared, even worse than the last, the burning images returned in his mind accompanied with new ones that he could not make sense of, loud cries filled his surroundings as his consciousness returned, with surprising agility, he quickly raised and ran as fast as he could.

Everything was burning down on the ground, his road was continuously blocked by walls and wooden pillars of fire, houses burned down behind him to the point where Hels were his only obstacle to go through, he immediately pulled out his trusty dagger, keeping it still behind his back and watching for an opening to strike.

Unlike many other warriors, he had to rely on his cunning and agility, just like Loki had he supposed, he never was strong enough to party someone with a normal blade, especially with one hand, so he resorted to disarm his enemies, and this time was no different.

He immediately ducked down from a dangerous yet imprecise swing of one of the beasts, his dagger immediately pierced through the blade held hand, making scream as it dropped it between its shrieks. From that point, he focused on keeping him as a shield from its companion, of which didn't think twice to try slicing through.

Making sure he gave the death blow upon the beast he quickly ran towards the second one, 

"Behind you!"

His ears perked up from the warning and immediately dodged behind the beast in front of him, avoiding of being sliced up by the two in the process. Stabbing the beast in the back, he instinctively ducked from the blade that barely scratched his hair, cutting his black tuft just a little bit in the process.

Stabbing it in the foot and in the chest, he singed his dagger right behind him, unavoidably clashing it with the other one's round shield. Dodging to the left, the shielded beast ended the mortally wounded one for him, using this as an advantage, he jumped behind and on its shoulders to cut its head clean off, letting the body quickly drop in the process.

Making sure nobody else was appearing, he quickly ran for the glowing symbol he hated, he could barely feel any more breath in his lungs and with a charged shoulder bash, he was able to barely make it before he risked to suffocate.

Desperately breathing out for the fresh air that returned, he immediately laid his back on the ground with his hand tightly gripped on his cloak. 

"Arthur you have to get up now!"

The genuine fear in the spirits voice was immediately bad news for him, trying to do as instructed, he simply fell for the loss of body strength. 

"I-... Give me a second-..."

The spirit could only repeat himself in terrorized fear, meanwhile the other could only breathe heavily completely unaware of the situation he was in... was he finally getting crazy or a chant has just begun?

"You have to get up in this instant! He's here!"

Knowing exactly who he was mentioning, his body quickly sat up fron the instinct of survival, he quickly arched back just to immediately regret that decision. Surtr was sitting down in his twisted throne, in front of him, a mere mortal, from that point Arthur was unable to move.

The God of Fire; The Jotuun Surtr, slowly and wordlessly sat up from his throne, he lifted up his weapon that killed everything in it's way, and slowly marched towards him, towards Arthur, the blond could only gulp loudly in fear as he did, 

"Snap out of it! Now!"

He could only tell in fear as the massive blade nearly crushed him there and then, Arthur quickly distanced himself as far as possible, his heart beated loudly as ever, the dagger trembled in his hand and he, alone, to face a God.

The battle continued with Surtr continuously assaulting his crumbling defense, Arthur was getting more and more hit in various places, the damned chant was feeling more and more distant, his sight was also getting blurry and his face completly red by the unbearable heat.

"Stop that at once Arthur! Focus! FOCUS!"

He snapped his eyes open once more, just barely in time to save his own life again, if this was gonna keep happening, he was actually going to die, oh Gods he was gonna die!

"Strike him damnit, remember what I said! Do not let him scare you!"

Easy for him to say, he was not nearly as tall as he expected a Jotunn to be, but this height was more than enough to scare the living shit out of him already, that enormous weapon only increased that fear tenfold. He squealed at the sudden speed Surtr striked, barely being able to side-parry him and strike him in his abdomen, realizing what he has just done, he quickly retreated in his scared state. The chant only seemed to peak back up from such a sudden twist of events.

"I-I can't! Just l-l-look at that... thing! How am I supposed to have any chances against it?!"

"Arthur! Calm down and listen! My people are singing for you kid, so get up and fight!"

His people? So there's a song going on, but... it's for him? They're trying to encourage him to fight back? 

Between the dodges he was forced to continuously make, his mind was somewhere else, wondering why would anyone trust such a fool like him? The Spirit trusted him, The Voices chanted for him, Vivi and Louise were waiting for him... he couldn't just sit back and continue taking these blows any longer, keeping a tight grip on his dagger, he finally had the foolishness and the courage to charge right back at Surtr.

"You don't scare me-... I won't let you scare me any longer!"

And as the moment they finally clashed as equal fighters, the voices started to sing aloud once again, the drums echoed in the burning building, and the fighters metal rang throughout the whole helheim to hear, this human was ready to take the first step forwards, he finally faced down his fears.

Arthur didn't even notice throughout the continuous dodging and stabbing, that his left hand cracked and glowed with a nearly blinding green, Surtr began to adapt from his sudden rushdown, and the blond was ready to truly test what he has learnt so far.

The battle continued between a barrage of thrusts, slashes, parries and foot steppings, neither of the top being able to land a hit on each other, Surtr was more adapt on slow heavy hitting, but when that war machine needed to, he could perfectly go into a more careful, precise fight, just like he did so right now. The mere fact that a mere human like he had forced him to play by his rules was already a feast to behold, but for Arthur that was simply not enough to beat him, he had to surprise him, and he might find an opening that could be his only chance to get out from this alive.

The moment he side parried his attack once again, he quickly jumped towards his head, Surtr was ready to strike a deadly blow for such an opening, only to find his blade clashed with his tiny one for a short moment just to feel his hand suddenly pierced through in that very instant, he could swear he was just right there before, how did that even happen?!

It was a question Arthur didn't have an answer for either, his only clue was on what he focused on, and then a realization hit him, the answer was right before him.

Focus.

His hand flew ever so bright, his heart finally open to the answer welcomed this sudden and unexpected power within him, he could feel his whole body burning in agony, he ignored it. What was important is for that copious bastard to go down.

With a painful yell, he charged in with inhuman speed, leaving a blur of green as he relentlessly striked the weapon before him, he could see it, he could even feel it, he might be a God, he might be a Jotunn, but everyone has their limits.

His whole body screamed at him to stop, his heart felt like it was ready to explode, but he striked on and on, he wouldn't let his body to keep him down like this, not anymore. He would finally show him, them and those he always cared of, that he can be strong!

Painful memories returned on how he was weak, always relying on others to help him get up on his feet, all the pain, the kicks, the punches, the insults, finally snapped him out in the condition he was in, he wanted to change.

"I'm not weak!"

Yelling it out from the top of his lungs, he finally broke down the only defense that Surtr foolishly had, feeling only excruciating pain as Arthur slashed his whole body up on blur around a couple of seconds.

"I'm not some damsel in distress! I can look out for myself! I can be strong!"

At that point the chant was coming to an end, Surtr barely alive with Arthur continuously stabbing his skull, he couldn't fathom on how he could ever loose to a kid like him, but his anger.. and his rage... was something he could oddly completely understand, perhaps even, for the very first time with someone but himself. 

"All I need is more Power... i just need... more power... to save them!"

With a final strike, Surtr finally has fallen dead, his soul leaving his broken and rotten body, only, to finally find a new host to share his anger and rage with.

"As you wish."

And with that, the body, the flames, the chant... all of it disappeared, leaving a sobbing man alone with his own sorrows, enjoying his first victory in his own self pity. The spirit could only look in silence as he did so.

Once sure he calmed down enough, he decided to approach him, he didn't dare to talk during the whole fight, perhaps in awe or in admitted fear, but mostly because he didn't want to distract him. And now, seeing him victorious, he didn't know what to even say. So he let him weep as long as he needed to.

When he finally dropped the dagger on the ground, he looked up on him with tired eyes, he didn't even seem sure if he was himself anymore, or what all of that has even been. But one thing reassured the blond, and the sight of him was the very thing that did so,

"Spirit... you're still here..."

He nodded,

"I thought you said to go once i helped."

He simply nodded yet again,

"Then why?-... Why are you still here?"

The spirit seemed hesitant to respond, and he rarely was so,

"Don't you want to go away from a freak like me too?"

Arthur chuckled within himself, it was what helped the spirit to finally speak up,

"You're not a freak, Arthur."

"YES I AM!... Just look at me! How can you call something like me normal, huh!?"

He brought his hand around his legs, keeping his face buried within them, the spirit sat beside him with an oddly warm aura around him,

"Arthur, I know you passed a lot before coming here, and I know you might have doubts on where you belong, but trust me, you did nothing but helping tormented souls to find peace so far."

He could spot a sneaking hopeful glance from his knees, for somebody who is supposedly 21 years old, he sure looks a lot younger in a state like this, it also helped him notice something odd beside Surtr that took him as a host... his hair has locks of black between them, although faint and hardly noticeable, they were there.

"Now can you please sit up? You look like a little kid curled up like that sheesh, it doesn't suit somebody who has just defeated a Jotunn like that."

Slowly following his request, he slowly swiped away the tears under his eyes, leaving his cheeks a red mess with that goofy faint smile of his that has just returned,

"Alright... thanks for that, I... apparently needed it."

"Psh, no kidding. You were turning into a village well if you continued like that."

They shared a small chuckle from that, Arthur seemingly unaware of his new little buddy in his soul and perhaps it's better to tell him about that a bit later perhaps,

"You still tell me."

"Hmm?"

"Why did you stay?"

He scratched behind his red hair on that,

"Well... I guess I just... wanted to stay and help you. You do need a guide here don't you?"

Although a bit skeptical, Arthur seemed pleased with that answer,

"I guess i do, yeah...you need a name then."

"A... name?"

His goofy grin just finally returned, even between all that has just happened, it looked like with the right company, this blond would be morally unbreakable.

"I can't keep just calling you Spirit now can i?"

Well, he had a point the spirit guessed, with a nod he let him dwell in his own mind on what name should he give to him, since he doesn't have one the blond was determined to find what suited him the most, with a shine in his tired eyes he seemed to have it,

"I think i have it! What about... Ruthra?"

The spirit, or rather Ruthra already laughed within themselves, perfectly knowing the reason he picked it, but he just couldn't help to tease him about it,

"That's literally your name backwards... I bet it wasn't you who gave names to the kids."

For Ruthra, Arthur was open like a book for him, perhaps the whole mind reading was part of it but by his reaction alone he knew to be right.

"Just so you know, you're horrible with names. But... I like this one. Ruthra it is then."

With that, Arthur and Ruthra slowly walked back towards where they arrived from, tired, exhausted and ready for the next battles that awaited them in their long journey together.


End file.
